Dear PGI,
It's your game, and ultimately you can do whatever you want with it.
With that said:
Since I started following this game you have sold it to the community as a Mech Sim that was going to be realistic and not an arcade experience.
I'm sure many of the Founders, your "whales," put up their money under the premise that they were getting the closest ever attempt at a mech sim with modern technology.
Despite what you say about using 3rd person as "training wheels" or as a way to ease into the game, anyone with a small amount of foresight can see that this is only the first step on a path that will lead to development resources being moved from the 1st person experience to the 3rd person experience.
You claim that is too hard for people to learn the controls, yet there are ZERO in-game resources to aid new players. Forcing your players to go to the forums or watch videos is bush league at best. Every modern game that's worth its salt has a tutorial. It's expected, and it should have been planned for and developed from the very beginning. Changing the entire scope of your game (which is what this is) because you didn't think about the new player experience FROM THE VERY BEGINNING is pretty sloppy.
This change will introduce a host of new problems that do not exist currently:
You will split the player base
Map design will be affected- how does the camera respond when I am facing away from a cliff I am adjacent to? Does it zoom out? Do I become transparent? These are all balance issues. Every deviation is a potential advantage for the 3rd-person player.
We've been down this road before: You announce a hair-brained idea in some media outlet, and the community brings things back to earth. Hopefully it happens this time as well. With the amount of stuff you guys are STILL missing with each patch, and the lack of key components to make this a complete game, I would say try finishing what you started before you start looking for creative "solutions" to your problem with new players. If that doesn't work, here are a few more solutions that don't require lying to your fanbase:
1. IN GAME TUTORIAL - Piloting, Combat, Mechlab, Map For examples see EVERY OTHER GAME
2. Give new players their own mech
3. Give players a "pilot level" that assists in matchmaking
4. Change the HUD to better visualize the torso configuration <<<< Have you even tried this?
Edited by tenderloving, 14 November 2012 - 02:40 PM.